Tuesday, December 27, 2016

The Unreliable Functionality of United Nations Peacekeepers

"The
weakest and most vulnerable around the world rely on the United Nations
to protect them, but it won't be able to fulfill their expectations if
its members send protectors who are known abusers back home."Akshaya Kumar, deputy UN director, Human Rights Watch

"[The
UN] does not have dedicated resources to carry out human rights
screening of individual contingent members, nor do we have the means to
assess the records of individuals."Farhan Haq, senior spokesman, UN peacekeepers

At
the present time, the United Nations is engaged in managing sixteen
separate peacekeeping missions with over 100,000 uniformed personnel and
an annual $8-billion budget. It recruits peacekeepers from militaries
around the world, many of which have notable records of military and
institutionalized abuse serving repressive governments. But the United
Nations lacks a system to identify conscripts with backgrounds replete
with human rights abuses.

Burundi is a case in point,
where the government has used its security forces as a punishing tool
against political opponents. A team of human rights experts appointed by the UN warned months ago that their forces were committing "gross violations" of human rights, recommending it "phase out"
use of Burundian peacekeepers. Consequently, the UN announced months
ago it would no longer accept Burundian police as peacekeepers in the
Central African Republic once the contingent has completed its tour.

The UN cited that cessation "given the current allegations of serious and ongoing human rights violations in Burindi".
Despite which the UN employs over 800 Burundian soldiers in the Central
African Republic, required, according to senior officials, to maintain
the peace. Another 5,400 Burundian troops are supported through the
African Union's mission in Somalia. And the reason that Burundian police
and military are offered to the United Nations for peacekeeping is that
millions of dollars are sent to the government of Burundi as payment
for supplying the troops.

The same could be said for
any and all governments who offer their security personnel for
deployment as UN peacekeepers; governments are lavishly recompensed for
their part in offering their national police and military to the United
Nations. For their part, the conscripts to the UN peacekeeping effort
view the opportunity to serve as a splendid personal opportunity to
enhance their livelihood. The coveted posts pay exceedingly well, about
$12,000 annually as opposed to the salary of a lieutenant in Burundi who
makes $500 per year.

This is used as a form of pay-off
by the Burundian government which reserves the peacekeeping nominations
for its loyalist contingents. Congo too sent 850 peacekeepers to the
Central African Republic with an African Union mission, in 2014 taken
over by the United Nations. Like Burundi, Congo's military commits human
rights abuses, raping and killing civilians during civil war.
Similarly, the UN announced it would be ending Congo's role in the
Central African Republic after incoming troops were unable to meet UN
standards for vetting, training and equipment.

Security
forces that open fire on protesters, kill and injure people, crack down
on suspected government enemies, arrest hundreds in defense of
government orders are considered loyalists by repressive,
human-rights-abusing regimes which are still viewed with a measure of
favour in the United Nations. Consider Syria's regime known to be
responsible for a half-million Syrian deaths in civil war conflict, and
millions of displaced Syrians; half its population. It still has a
respected place within UN member-bodies.

A great
majority of United Nations member countries are unable to bear even
cursory scrutiny of their human rights records. Countries like Saudi
Arabia with its misogynistic patriarchy and its penchant for inspiring
terrorism, can still sit on a council ostensibly created to support
women's rights. The United Nations was meant to be a bulwark against
human rights abuses in the world, as a world body to promote peace and
equality. Instead it has become a club for human rights abusers to stand
in judgement over the relative few of the UN's members who are exemplars of human rights protection.